10 Best TikTok Video Makers & Editing Apps for Engaging Content

Why you should use a TikTok maker for your TikTok videos?

In some ways, TikTok isn't as versatile as other editing software.

On TikTok, you cannot crop 1:1 or 16:9 videos to TikTok’s favored aspect ratio 3:4. TikTok’s app also doesn’t let you remove redundant objects from your recording. In addition, it is incapable of removing shakiness from videos.

Some of the built-in features of TikTok aren’t as user-friendly as some of the other editors. For example, you can’t add multiple videos and adjust video length after applying filters, text, and other edits. 

TikTok is also notorious for making resolutions higher than 1080p be blurred, thanks to its video compression algorithm.

So what video maker should you be using for your TikTok videos? Read on for the 10 best TikTok makers you should try. 

10 Best TikTok video makers and editing apps for 2023

1. Riverside

Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Android, iOS

Pricing: $15/month for the Standard version, $24/month for the Pro version

Riverside makes creating video highlights and sharing them on TikTok a breeze. If you're someone who creates long-form content and repurposes this as TikTok videos, then Riverside will cut your workload in less than half.

The Magic Clips feature works with Ai to identifies key moments in any of your long-form recordings and turns them into short, shareable videos, ideal for any social media platform. You can edit and customize these with our text-based editor which works with Ai transcriptions. Editing videos, becomes as easy as reading through a recording transcript. Any text you delete in your transcript automatically removes the matching video and audio in your recording. You can also use these transcripts to navigate through your video and find the exact quote you're looking for.

These Ai transcriptions are available in over 100 languages, and you can use them to create video captions, or you can download them as SRT or TXT files. You can then  customize your background and layout, fine-tune your audio, and polish your video.

Riverside offers both a free and a paid version. While the free version is great, if you want higher-resolution recordings without watermarks, you might want to upgrade to the paid version.

Pros

• Turn long-form recordings into lots of sharable short-video content at the tap of a button
• Fantastic for creating clips from long-form videos
• Text-based video editing so anyone can turn their recording into quality content
• Easy to use and intuitive platform
• Live editing with a media board to help save time in post-production
• Quick customized logos and backgrounds
• Record up to 8 participants remotely
• Up to 4K video and 48 kHz audio resolution

Cons

• Editing tools are not available on the mobile app yet

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2. CapCut

Compatibility: Android, iOS

Pricing: Free

This one comes from Bytedance, the company that made TikTok. So obviously, this app is a must-add app to our list. But what really makes this a no-brainer app to use is that it’s completely free, no strings attached.

Unlike Adobe Rush, CapCut is only available on Android and iOS. It has features like speed changes, stickers, filters, background music, auto-captioning, and plenty of others that make your videos TikTok-ready. 

The app also helps you remove background colors for a green screen effect, so you can add another video or picture later.

Unfortunately, if you’re looking for advanced editing options, CapCut, well, doesn’t make the ‘cut’. The other apps on this list have better features. However, it’s a free editor, and an excellent one at that, especially for beginners. 

Pros

• Free to use
• Great selection of filters
• Great music library 

Cons

• 15-minute video length only
• Features are basic

3. InShot

Compatibility: Android, iOS

Pricing: $3.99/month, $14.99/year or $34.99 lifetime

InShot is another popular editor. It makes it easy to resize a video to suit any social media platform (like TikTok). Once resized, you can share the video to any social media platform from inside the app. 

It includes filters, font styles, animation effects, and transitions. With it you can trim, split, merge and delete clips. 

Other cool features include the ability to extract music from other videos and add it to your own video. 

However, if you’re looking for advanced editing, avoid the free version — it comes with a watermark and lacks some editing capabilities. 

Pros

• Great for sharing to social media networks
• Easy to use
• Extensive filter and effects library

Cons

• Free version videos have a watermark
• Not great for professional editing

4. Magisto

Compatibility: Android, iOS

Pricing: $4.99/month for the Premium version, $9.99 for the Professional version, and $34.99 for the business version

Magisto is by Vimeo, the popular video hosting platform. Like InShot, there’s a free and a paid version of the program, but the paid version offers more editing options. The latter option has three tiers — Premium, Professional, and Business. 

For editing videos, the Premium version is enough. The Professional tier, however, includes access to millions of video clips and photos from iStock.

Editing on Magisto is straightforward  — you can change the aspect ratio and style of the project (Memories, Wow, Minimalistic & Fun). You can also select the background music, which Magisto has a huge selection of.  

But here’s the best part: Magisto uses an AI to do all the heavy-lifting video editing. 

Of course, an AI can’t beat human creativity, so if you feel like it hasn’t done the job, you can edit your videos manually. You can add more footage, move clips around, trim clips, and add various other effects. 

Whether you want the AI to do the job, or do it yourself, Magisto beginner-friendly interface helps make videos in minutes. 

Pros

• 3 million + stock video clips and 25 million photos with iStock
• AI Editor helps make videos quickly.

Cons

• Limited features in the free version 
• Paid version is expensive

5. Funimate

Compatibility: Android, iOS

Pricing: $2.99/week. Comes with a 7-day free trial

Funimate is popular with TikTok users who make 60-second videos. The app is also particularly known for its plethora of emojis, stickers, and video effects.

It offers the usual video editing features, such as merging, cropping, and trimming. Other tools include AI that enhances the look of the video as well as a text-to-video feature. 

Although the free version is excellent, it lacks the filters and animations of the pro version. 

Pros

• 100+ advanced video effects, stickers, and emojis. 
• Add great intos and outros

Cons

• Ads in the free version

6. Vizmato

Compatibility: Android, iOS

Pricing: $11.99/year. Comes with a 7-day free trial

Vizmato lets you add live special effects and music when recording a video. 

The app has video themes like HipHop, Chaplin, Sci-Fi, and Vintage, and special effects like Beats, Mirror, and Fluidic that make videos engaging. 

Other neat tools include the ability to modulate your voice with options like baby, chipmunk, ghost, and more. You also get access to the Viztunes library, which has over 140 free music tracks. 

If you choose the free version, all your edited videos will have a watermark. So if you want to avoid this, the paid option is the only way to go. 

Pros

• Video recording with live effects
• Voice changer and lip-syncing options
• Great selection of themes and visual effects

Cons

• The free version comes with watermarks and ads

7. iMovie

Compatibility: iOS, macOS

Pricing: Free

iMovie makes it easy for fans of Apple to edit videos without fancy editing skills. 

The interface is clean and allows you to split, trim, and change the speed of videos easily. The software also has tools for cropping footage and creating PIP (picture in picture). It also makes scrubbing through a project easy — you just have to drag your finger across the screen.

Additionally, iMovie has a large library of audio effects and music which you can use to enrich your videos.

Pros

• Free
• Great audio effects and music library
• Plenty of special effects

Cons

• Not available on Android

8. Splice

Compatibility: Android, iOS

Pricing: Free

Splice is a powerful yet intuitive video editor made by the makers of GoPro. It’s perfect for editing both long-form and short-form videos. It's mainly known for its ability to create smooth transitions like crossfade, fade to black, blur, swipe across, and more. 

The app also has a fantastic selection of filters and text overlays that help make your videos more attractive. 

Splice comes with multi-track audio editing, which helps you create soundtracks easily. Furthermore, its audio library offers a wide selection of music tracks (16 genres, with 9-26 tracks in each genre) and sound effects.

While the app is free, some tools are locked behind a paywall. And both versions don’t let you share videos straight to TikTok.

Pros

• Excellent audio editing tools
• Easy to trim, split clips, add filters, transitions, and text

Cons

• Limited audio and video editing capabilities in the free version 

9. Zoomerang

Compatibility: Android, iOS

Pricing: $29.99/year or $4.99/week

Zoomerang is beginner friendly as it comes with step-by-step tutorials that show you how to recreate popular TikTok trends. 

The app has plenty of filters, visual effects, music, and more. Once you’re done editing the video, you can connect your TikTok (or Instagram & Snapchat) account to the app for easy sharing. 

The free version once again lacks advanced editing tools, so go for a subscription to access all the app’s features. 

 Pros

• Step-by-step tutorials
• Plenty of effects, filters, text, and stickers
• Hundreds of transitions

Cons

• Free version is limited and has ads

10. Adobe Rush

Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Android, iOS

Pricing: $9.99/month

Made by Adobe, a company best known for its video editing products, Rush makes editing TikTok videos a breeze. It’s less complex than Premiere Pro, and anyone can use this app.  

The editing app comes with a snappy clipper for creating social media-worthy videos. You can easily adjust the video’s aspect ratio, apply color grading effects, and use the in-app motion graphics templates to spice your footage up. 

The app displays three to four audio tracks simultaneously, which makes adding sound and music effortless. Additionally, you can easily create engaging titles, as the app allows you to change their style, motion, location, and duration. 

The app is free to use; however, we suggest you take up a subscription to access extra editing features and additional cloud storage. Also, the free version only allows you to export three files per day. 

Pros

• Simple Adobe app for a beginner
• Cross-platform
• Great tools for making short videos

Cons

• Needs a Creative Cloud subscription
• Can only export three files per day with the free version

How to make a video with TikTok’s built-in video editor

Step 1: Open your TikTok video creator

Open the app and press the + icon at the bottom of the screen. Now you’re ready to start creating your TikTok video.

Step 2: Change settings and hit record

Before you start recording, play around with various settings and filters. Also, choose the length of the video. 

Now hit the red Record button.

If you plan to stitch multiple videos together, you’ll have to record several clips. 

Step 3: Clip your video

Once the recording is done, click ‘Adjust clips’. Here, move the red lines on either side of the video to add the start and stop points. You can also split a video in two by using the white line that runs down the video bar. 

Step 3: Add effects

Select a trending sound or search by clicking on the ‘Add sound’ tab at the top of the screen.

Click on ‘Effects’ to add visual effects like stickers, transitions, and more to the video. 

Click on ‘Text’ on the top right-hand side, and choose from a variety of colors and fonts. You can also choose when the text appears on the video and the duration. 

Once everything is ready, click ‘Next’.

Step 4: Post your TikTok video!

Fill in the description, tag people, and then click Post to get your TikTok video live! 

Tips on how to edit TikTok videos

Let’s look at some of the most popular ways to edit your TikTok videos so you can create viral-ready videos immediately. 

Add loops to your videos

When people watch your video more than once, it signals to TikTok's algorithm that your content is engaging. And looping is one way to make your viewers watch your video multiple times.

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To understand what looping is and how to do it, check out the below video. 

For effective looping, match the ending of the video to the beginning in a seamless way to keep your viewers engaged. 

Change the recording speed

Play around with different recording speeds to make your videos more interesting and cinematic. It also lets you add more video content into a short recording.

To change speeds, click the Speed icon and choose your preferred option. 

Cut videos

Longer videos aren’t better on TikTok. According to Wired, the most watched videos are 21 to 34 seconds long. 

So while you should be taking as much footage as possible, only leave the most interesting bits to maximize engagement and climb the algorithm. 

Use Transitions

Transitions are widely used in TikTok, so experiment with different ones in your videos. Also, keep in mind that the level of skill required for different transitions varies.

However, a simple beginner transition is the finger snap — and it’s widely used by TikTokers to grab attention. An example is below.

Use trending filters, effects, and songs

Use effects, filters, sounds, and songs in your videos. Popular effects include green screen, slow motion, time warp effect, and more. 

You can also increase the likelihood of your video going viral by using trending songs.

For more tips on how to edit TikTok videos, check out our article here. 

How to Make TikTok Videos on Riverside?

You can make TikTok videos on Riverside easily with just a few steps. Watch the video below or read on to learn how: 

Step 1: Go to the Riverside.fm dashboard and click on New Studio. Add the Studio Name, and set the Recording Type to Audio & Video. 

Step 2: In the next page, enter your name and click on Join Studio.

Step 3: Click on Record in the following page. (You can learn more about recording here)

Step 4: After you’ve finished recording, click on the View recordings button. You can also access old recordings by going to the studio where your old recording is and selecting this same button.

Step 5: Find the take you'd like to use and you can start off by clicking on the Magic Clips button. This takes key moments in your long-form recordings and turns them into short sharable videos. You can click on these to edit them in the editor.

Alternatively, you can create and cut your own clips by selecting 'Go to Editor'.

Step 6: Choose an aspect ratio options – Story, Post, or Full-length. For TikTok, we recommend Story. 

You’ll now get access to the Timeline, where you can:

• Trim your videos by simply deleting text from your Ai transcript
• Remove silences at the tap of a button
• Add captions directly to your video
• Customize and adjust your layout with backgrounds and your own logo.

Step 6: Once done, click Export. Then click Back to dashboard. Wait for a few minutes for the exporting to complete. 

And that’s it! Your TikTok video is ready to publish. 

Conclusion

TikTok’s in-built video editor is fantastic; in many cases, you don’t even need to download a third-party editor. However, each of the editors we’ve suggested in this article has something new to contribute, and restricting yourself to only TikTok’s editor will only serve to restrict your creativity. 

In any case, most editors come with a free version, so you can try them risk-free before committing to any one of them. 

Happy editing!